10 Things You Need To Know Before Moving In Together

Moving in with your boyfriend/girlfriend is obviously a major step in any relationship and brings with it a number of wonderful benefits and annoying challenges, most of which you've anticipated. But here are 10 really specific things that I wasn't entirely prepared for:

You can't watch EVERYTHING together, or else you'll end up falling way behind on every show then secretly resenting your partner for not being around at every exact moment you want to watch the next episode of one of your shows.

You have to limit yourselves to 1-3 shows you watch together, MAX, then everything else is fair game to watch on your own. The stress induced by episodes piling up on DVRs or serieses going OFF Netflix because you didn't watch them in time is legal grounds for apartment-divorce (or at the very least, legal grounds for being silently mad).

Every time one of you comes home, you'll have to do a tricky balancing act where you're really happy to greet your pet (especially when it's a super-excited dog running over to jump on you) but also just as happy to see the other person, even though they're usually just, y'know, some person sitting there.

Personally, I'd also be WAY more excited to see a happy animal than to see me. I'm just some mediocre dude sitting on a couch, wearing like, a shirt. The dog is celebrating like it just won Game 7 of the Dog World Series and the trophy is made out of dropped chip-flavor-dust.

Your partner's out of town? Cool, then you don't need to do dishes until 30 seconds before the exact moment they come back. Or clean up that rice you spilled. Or shower or change your clothes ever. Who cares? No one's seeing you and you're not trying to impress anyone.

Also it's somehow 5 am. It's always somehow 5 am. Why are you up?

This is very dangerous. DANGEROUSLY AWESOME!!!! Also, regular dangerous. It's still that.

But! When you live with someone and have any alcohol nearby, you can just decide to drink it together and have it not be you sadly drinking by yourself. Now every Tuesday weeknight becomes a PARTY Tuesday weeknight! And it's GREAT! And a PROBLEM SOMETIMES!

Remember early on in the relationship when you felt guilty pooping in the other person's bathroom, and you'd rush through it (and sometimes leave the toilet seat up) to make them think that you're not some big gross "human being"?

Give it a week of living together before you no longer give a shit about bringing your laptop into the bathroom with you so you can keep streaming Trailer Park Boys.